12 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



labourers in the wide field of nature to gather its flowers ; 

 and we can only hope that, by the joint exertions of the two 

 Societies, the natural history, productions, and resources of 

 these Colonies, and those of Tasmania in particular, may ere 

 long be thoroughly investigated, described, and published." 

 The two Societies did not, however, last long side by side. 

 The younger, in a short space of time, swallowed up the elder, 

 absorbing its members; and in 1848, or early in 1849, the 

 Tasmanian Society came to an end. There seems, however, 

 to have been some sort of understanding between these 

 Societies, for I find that the published Reports of their 

 proceedings do not overlap each other, — those of the Tas- 

 manian Society coming to a close on 10th May, 1848, and 

 those of the Royal Society starting from 16th August of the 

 same year. Meantime the Royal Society appears to have 

 been growing in strength. It possessed the great advantages 

 of receiving an annual grant from the Government, and of 

 having an allotment of land in the Domain for the purpose 

 of creating a Botanical Garden, of which considerable use 

 apparently was made in the direction of experiments, both in 

 the naturalisation and acclimatisation of such exotic trees, 

 fruits, and plants as it might be in any way useful or desirable 

 to introduce into the Colony, and on the capabihties of 

 indigenous plants to improve by cultivation. 



The Royal Society was fortunate in its officers. It had the 

 advantage of having first as its Secretary Dr. Lillie, of 

 whom I have already spoken, and afterwards of Dr. Milligan ; 

 and Sir John Franklin's successors, Sir Eardley Wilmot and 

 Sir William Denison, both extended to it their fullest support. 

 So important a body had it become by 1850 that, when the 

 Governor in that year received a Despatch from the Secretary 

 of State, desiring that specimens of the native and industrial 

 products of the Colony should be procured and sent for 

 exhibition at the first Great Exhibition of the Industries of all 

 Nations, to be held in London in 1851, he at once summoned 

 a meeting of the Royal Society to devise the ways and 

 means of most effectually accomplishing this object. The 

 matter was then taken in hand by the Royal Society, and 

 successfully carried through by them ; and the interest taken 

 by the Governor in the undertaking is shown by the fact that 

 the exhibits, before their despatch to England, were collected 

 together and were on view to the public for five days in the 

 Ball Room of Government House. 



